


Stay With Me

by slightlycrunchy



Category: Legend of Zelda, LinkedUniverse - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Gen, It’s Not Perfect, Whump, first fanfic, just a little, not too graphic, slight gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 16:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21079943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlycrunchy/pseuds/slightlycrunchy
Summary: This was written for whumptober2019. Not a perfect fic but if you want a bit of angst, I gotchu ;)





	Stay With Me

He was climbing. 

He was awfully good at it after all, let alone it was something he enjoyed immensely. It made him feel alive. To feel his muscles move, stretch and tighten, almost exclusively from memory. One of the few memories he had seemed to have kept. 

Akkala. His Hyrule. 

He had just needed a moment. Just a little time to himself. They hadn’t been to Wild’s Hyrule in ages it seemed, and he had wanted to visit one of his favorite solitary haunts. Alone, he told them. “I won’t go far”, he had said. But he hadn’t told them where. 

Too much of a chance they would follow. 

The Citadel. He had a feeling he had had many memories here. He had been a knight after all, following his fathers footsteps. Or so a particular memory had told him. He chose to believe her. 

These were his thoughts as he climbed, fingers stretching to the next hold, feet following closely behind in a sort of dance. His muscles burned, his scars stretching slightly uncomfortably as he extended the full length of his body over and over, sweat rushing like rivers down his shirtless frame. 

The exertion felt incredible. The Links all shared a need for action when their emotions were especially tumultuous. 

And Wilds were especially that. Tumultuous. But something more...they hurt him. Something mental, but affecting him physically all the same. 

Coming back to his Hyrule put his head in a place it hadn’t been in months. Ever since he had met them, Wild didn’t think of himself. His friends, they were what mattered. This showed by how he cared for them. He fed them, knowing a hot meal could do wonders for an exhausted body and mind. He listened as they told their tales, offering a shoulder to lean on when needed....or even only wanted. 

And when they needed more, much to Twilights dismay....he would die for them. He would come back after all, they wouldn’t. 

And so the months had passed, his mind quite occupied in tending to his brothers. 

He didn’t leave much time to think of himself. 

That was, until they stumbled upon his Hyrule. 

It always happened so smoothly, without so much as a sign until someone, usually the one to whom the world belonged, would speak the obvious change. 

This time, that charge fell to Wild. But he didn’t get a chance to speak. 

It was like lightning had struck him. But there was certainly no storm. Pain erupted from his head, blinding him, jerking his head back towards the heavens, his hands following to cradle his own shattering skull. 

From the vibrations he felt rumbling from his chest and throat he was sure he was screaming. And loud at that. But he was lost somewhere else. Every memory he had gathered during his journey was flashing through his mind, with no space between. He wanted to shut his eyes, he didn’t want to see-  
But you cannot hide from yourself. 

Zelda, Mipha, Revali, Daruk, Urbosa...and then something else. People he didn’t recognize, places he hadn’t seen. 

He saw himself, smiling, and the smile actually reaching his eyes this time...

“...ild...”

“...wild...”

“WILD!”

His eyes jerked open. He didn’t remember closing them. 

His hands were still wrapped tightly around his own head, his face was wet with tears. His throat was raw and throbbing. 

Twi looked down on him from somewhere above him, and he realized there was an arm behind his shoulders, supporting him, while his lower half was clearly on the rocky path they had been traveling. He didn’t remember falling either. 

Twi slowly placed his remaining hand on Wild’s wrist, making slow circles on the inside of it, telling him without words to relax his arm. Wild complied, letting Twi gently remove it from his aching head. 

“Breathe, cub.”

He took shallow, shaky breaths. In, out. In, out. This took more attention than he would have thought, because next he knew he felt another arm from his other side slide underneath his legs, while an exchange happened beneath his shoulders simultaneously. 

Time then stood, effectively scooping Wild up in his arms as if he weighed little, his head lolling to rest on his chest beneath Times chin. 

Wild groaned with the quick movement, not much sound escaping his aching throat, before he was lost to the blackness again. 

He next awoke in a bed. The familiar sheets over and around parts of the bed revealed it to be a stable, which one he did not know. His head ached, but it was nothing compared to what it had been. And while his throat felt tight, the vague memory of what it had felt like helped him to see that obviously some time had passed; the pain was all but gone. 

There was daylight streaming in from outside, which made him hope he hadn’t been out too long. He hated to be a burden. He was already feeling the guilt crawl into his bones. 

He turned his head slowly to see Twi sitting in a chair, eyes absolutely transfixed on his own. 

And as if Twi knew exactly what he was thinking about... “Two days.”

“Shit.” 

While technically the word came out, it was nothing but a raspy whisper. And the quietness did NOT betray how it had felt, his throat screaming at him. 

“Wild what was that?” Twi’s face twisted into a state of worry, something Wild sadly saw all too often when Twi looked at him. 

He didn’t dare speak. He rose his hands to sign. My memories. I saw everything....and then some. I didn’t recognize all of it...

“You scared us to death cub...” As he trailed off he lowered his gaze to his own hands, grasped together with fumbling fingers. With which he then went to grab Wild’s closest appendage, enveloping his hand with his warm embrace. He returned his gaze to Wild’s icy blue eyes, and with it brought a hand up to cradle his slightly pale face. 

“Don’t do it again.”

I won’t. 

Knowing fully well that wasn’t really a promise he could keep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

And so, that brought him to now, 2 days after what could be called a confusing experience. The others had fussed over him for another day after he woke, even though he insisted he felt totally fine. 

As fine as he could. ‘What was that’ was truly a loaded question, one which Wild was desperately trying to figure out himself. He knew he had neglected himself in the months leading up to now. He had pushed down any thoughts concerning himself, past or present. 

He also hadn’t been in a physical place that required him to remember those things. There were different dangers in the others’ worlds. Ones that required all of his attention and mental space. And so he had reason to forget himself....right?

He had reached the top of the tower, lungs heaving from exertion. Palms red and all but bleeding. But this is what he needed. And he thought to himself it was serving it’s purpose, the pieces were falling together. 

Their foray into his world brought everything he had been suppressing back. He should have known better. You cannot hide from yourself. But boy was he good at trying. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the sun was certainly going down. Having rested, he decided it was time to return. 

He ran, full speed, air filling his lungs, blood pumping through his veins as his leg muscles pushed against the ground with all they had, until he reached the edge and jumped; free falling to the red dirt below. 

In a practiced movement he pulled his paraglider from its place on his hip and soared through the sky. Goddess he loved this. He was pretty sure he always would. His thoughts turned inward as he sailed away from the tower toward the stable. The act of flying didn’t need much of his attention after all. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

He knew his cub didn’t want him following, but with a scare like he had given them 2 days prior, there’s no way he’d be left behind. Twi had animal instincts, you couldn’t tell him something wasn’t going on inside Wild. He knew. 

And so when the boy told them what he was going to do, Twi gave him some distance and in his wolf state, followed. 

It had been hours. Sitting in the Citadels shadow, watching his cub commit near death drops every fourth hold he found on the wall, all the while having the time of his life. Twi found a sort of contentment in it. Perhaps he would be alright after all. 

The sun was going down. From far up the cliff he sees a small body launch itself, caution be damned, off the tower walls; paraglider following shortly afterward. He snickered as much as a wolf can to himself, and then began the trot back to the stables. 

He had forgotten how much it rained here. Storm clouds were moving in, small flashes of light intertwined with swirling clouds. The grass beneath his feet suddenly whipped and waved with the wind, where minutes before it was still. He picked up the pace. 

Seconds later, a crash such as he had never heard cracked through the air, pounding in his ears and shoving him to the ground. But he didn’t see a ribbon of light hit anywhere near him he thought to himself. Until instead, he raised his eyes, and a small body, his cub, was plummeting to the earth, smoke and fire accompanying him. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Wild came out of his internal battle with his own mind only to realize what had happened in the atmosphere around him. He knows what his storms bring. He assesses himself. He has a small dagger on his hip, but other than that nothing else. Climbing with full gear on is treacherous and foolish. He looks around him again, sees the grass below him weave and whip as the storm winds blow in. He looks to the right and slightly behind as he scans the area. 

“A dog?”, he says out loud to himself. “No...that’s Twi.” And as those words leave his tongue, he hears a crack louder than anything he thinks he’s ever heard. Simultaneously a pain like fire, forcing its way through his body, consumes him. Like a barbed liquid, poured through him, filling his lungs, his veins, his mind...

He knows he’s falling. The slits that are his eyes see the ground coming closer, and just barely discernible, a dark figure with it. 

~~~~~~~~~~

He sees his body hit the ground. Hears a sickening crunch, and then silence. 

Twilight transforms instantly, running to Wild’s side....what’s left of it. 

Burned flesh, oozing skin, bodily fluids seeping from the cleft starting at his hip. The hilt of a dagger being what was left of the reason for the strike. 

“Gods cub why didn’t you take it off?!”, he hissed under his breath. He lifted Wild’s head gently, closer to himself. Wild’s eyes were closed, his breathing ragged and shallow, his entire body still spasming. Twilight lifted a finger to the hollow of Wild’s neck, feeling for a pulse. It remained, but was entirely irregular. 

Then the shaking started. He was trembling continuously before, but this was intense. It was shock, Twilight knew. He was not going to survive this. They were still far out from the stable, and moving him would do nothing but worsen his condition. 

This was it. 

The hand that wasn’t supporting his back made its way to Wild’s face, caressing his cheek as he stuttered for breath. 

“Cub...? Cub...”, he trailed off, tears freely falling down his face, bringing his head to rest against Wild’s. 

Wild’s eyes opened only just enough to consider them open, and when his eyes roamed and settled on Twilights, although not really seeing him due to his condition, Twi said the only thing that his mind would string together. 

“Stay with me cub”. 

And with a giant stuttering sigh, the life left his form.

**Author's Note:**

> I took artistic liberties 😁 obviously Wild would revive at the end but where’s the fun in that! Please leave me a comment if you can spare the time, thanks for reading!


End file.
